ITIL and Togaf, and a certification on the way November 22, 2010

a couple of weeks ago i did a three day course on ITIL (the IT Infrastructure Library) culminating in the ITIL Foundation exam.

ITIL is a set of high level processes for managing IT from Strategy through delivery, to operations. With a focus more towards Operations than the Strategy end of the spectrum

If you havent heard about ITIL I would strongly encourage you to find out more. It is very quickly gaining traction as the standard for best practice in operating an IT estate.

The exam frankly was straightforeward and I am glad to say I passed (hooray!).

Before the course i was aware of the basic concepts and after attending the course i have a much better appreciation and interest, in ITIL. It is very coherent as a whole. For me, it is an interesting contrast to TOGAF.

ITIL has gone through a radical change from version 2 to version 3 where strong editorial governance has ensured that version 3 overcomes its heritage and makes a clean break from prior versions to successfully make a wholesale restructuring of its content. In all it makes a coherent whole and the individual books makes for a well integrated method spanning strategy to operations

Unlike TOGAF… which seems to have a very weak editorial practice and as a result it a hybrid of new, high quality content from Cap Gemini in version 9 intermingled with weak legacy content from prior editions. In particular it seems wedded to the ADM ‘crop circle’ with redundant phases like Opportunities and Solutions and Migration Planning and meekly justifying their existence.
Other esoteric concepts like the Enterprise Continuum persist (a phrase like this only belongs on Star Trek) when a stronger editorial hand would have done away with all of these concepts several editions ago

i am not sure where i am going with this🙂 other than to praise ITIL and hope that the open group takes a strong editorial stance in version 10

Like this:

LikeLoading...

Related

Greetings Chris! Hats off to everything you’ve accomplished and for sharing your experience with all of us, and of course the new born =) I wanted to get your take on what certification to go after first…ITIL or TOGAF or..? This would probably beg to ask the question, what are you looking for? I’ve got about 10 years of IT experience, the last 5 years doing systems engineering type work, and an MBA last year. I’m 30 years old and kinda looking for the next best thing. I see myself possibly walking the EA line. I should be picking up an EA mentor relatively soon but I wanted to get your take on helping to position myself for possibly EA. Thoughts on some options? Thanks a bunch.